A third bill extending the moratorium on new marijuana business licenses was also approved by lawmakers.
Region: MT
Witnesses also pushed back against language in the bill equating the availability of higher-THC products with slavery.
The law extends existing restrictions on the pool of applicants eligible to obtain licensure to participate in the adult-use marijuana market.
The bill’s sponsor says that the results will be used for purposes of establishing probable cause only; a positive test result would be not viewed as prima facie evidence of impairment.
Provisions in the bill would have repealed adult-use sales, limited home cultivation, and greatly raised taxes of medical cannabis products.
Investigators concluded, “Consistent with estimates from prior studies, there [is] little evidence that [marijuana legalization laws] encourage youth marijuana use.”
Researchers further reported that legalization was associated “with decreases in teen marijuana consumption, consistent with the hypothesis that selling to minors becomes a relatively risky proposition for licensed marijuana dispensaries.”
“Whether or not one supports or opposes cannabis legalization, one should be deeply concerned by this trend.”